ess and, while in such a condition, possibly be done away with. He
has told me he is vulnerable to force, such as a speeding bullet, if it
hit the right spot, but George possesses the ability to read intent long
before the commission of an act. The person need not even be in the
room. He is probably listening to me here now, although he may be far
away."

The men looked at one another, shifted uneasily on their seats, and a
few cast apprehensive eyes at the windows and doorways.

"Though he is admittedly a superior creature possessed of powers beyond
our comprehension, there must be a weak spot in his armor somewhere. I
have dedicated myself to finding that weakness."

The chair recognized a man in the fifth row.

"Mr. Mayor, why don't we all track him down and a lot of us attack him
at once? Some of us would die, sure, but he couldn't strike us _all_
dead at one time. Somebody's bound to succeed."

"Why not try a high-powered rifle from a long way off?" someone else
suggested, frantically.

"Let's bomb him," still another offered.

The mayor waved them quiet and turned to Prof. Tomlin. The professor got
to his feet again.

"I'm not sure that would work, gentlemen," he said. "The humanoid is
able to keep track of hundreds of things at the same time. No doubt he
could unleash his power in several directions almost at once."

"But we don't know!"

"It's worth a try!"

At that moment George walked into the room and the clamor died at its
height. He went noiselessly down an aisle to the platform, mounted it
and turned to the assembly. He was a magnificent blue figure, eyes
flashing, chest out, head proud. He eyed them all.

"You are working yourselves up needlessly," he said quietly. "It is not
my intention, nor is it the intention of any Seventh Order Humanoid, to
kill or cause suffering. It's simply that you do not understand what it
would mean to dedicate yourselves to the fulfillment of the Seventh
Order destiny. It is your heritage, yours because you have advanced in
your technology so far that Earth has been chosen by us as a station.
You will have the privilege of creating us. To give you such a
worthwhile goal in your short lives is actually doing you a service--a
service far outweighed by any of your citizens. Beside a Seventh Order
Humanoid, your lives are unimportant in the great cosmic scheme of
things--"

"If they're so unimportant, why did you bother to take two of them?"

"Yeah. Why don't yo